Temecula school board adopts social studies curriculum, avoids fine but faces civil rights inquiry

A conservative Riverside County school board that had previously rejected a social studies curriculum that mentioned gay rights activist Harvey Milk reversed course Friday night and said it would go forward with the instructional materials that meet state standards.

The unanimous decision by the Temecula Valley Unified School District followed a series of contentious public meetings and a threat by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fine the district $1.5 million if it did not provide its elementary school students with new state-approved social studies books for the coming school year.

Under what board members described as a compromise, the district will pull from the curriculum one supplemental lesson — a fourth-grade unit that discusses the gay rights movement — for further review and possible rewriting, according to a video of Friday night’s meeting. Milk is not in the textbook, but his biography appears in materials teachers may draw on or assign to students, according to information provided at the meeting.

Temecula’s adoption of an elementary school history curriculum, a routine process in many districts, became a flashpoint in the national culture wars in recent weeks.

Some conservatives from the so-called “parents’ rights” movement attacked the inclusion of LGBTQ+ topics in the “Social Studies Alive” curriculum as sexualizing and inappropriate. The board president branded Milk, the state’s first out gay man elected to public office, “a pedophile” and another member claimed the instructional materials promoted pedophilia.

The board voted 3-2 in May to reject the curriculum.

Newsom, who has fashioned himself as a progressive warrior against red-state policies, waded into the situation. In addition to threatening to levy the fine, the governor pledged to ship the district textbooks that complied with state law whether or not the board approved and pressed legislation that, if passed, will give the state new power over textbooks. He also announced in June a civil rights investigation by the state Department of Education.

“Fortunately, now students will receive the basic materials needed to learn,” Newsom said in a statement after the board vote. He blasted “extremists” for opposing the curriculum, adding, “Demagogues who whitewash history, censor books, and perpetuate prejudice never succeed. Hate doesn’t belong in our classrooms and because of the board majority’s antics, Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for.”

During Friday’s meeting, board President Joseph Komrosky, who had been strongly opposed to the curriculum previously, acknowledged fear of potential litigation.

“We have a fiscal responsibility so that I cannot steer this district into more legalities,” said Komrosky, who teaches logic at a local community college.

Under a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2011, history lessons and textbooks in California public schools are required to include contributions of gay, lesbian and transgender Americans. The curriculum currently in use is from 2006.

Komrosky denied that pressure from Sacramento forced the about-face, saying, “It had nothing to do with Gov. Newsom.”

He pointed instead to his recent discovery that nearly 400 parents in a district pilot program had vetted the program. Another board member said 98% of parents in the program supported it.

“It’s a fine curriculum,” board member Steve Schwartz said in an interview. A retired New York City schoolteacher, Schwartz supported the curriculum from the start and said he thought activists, some from outside, had stirred up the community without actually reviewing the materials. “I looked through it and I did not find anything objectionable or anything to do with sex or pedophilia or pornography…”

The vote was 4-0 with one board member who opposed the curriculum not in attendance.

Board member Jennifer Wiersma changed her vote to adopt the curriculum, but acknowledged “it wasn’t my first choice” and voiced continuing concerns about the presentation of gay rights.

“It’s important to start healing. It’s also important to protect the kids,” she said.

The district, which oversees the education of about 28,000 students, leans Republican and favored Donald Trump in the 2020 election. One board member, who has supported the curriculum, said at Friday’s meeting that she has been harassed at work and accused of supporting pedophilia.

“If you know me in any capacity, it is laughable,” said the board member, Allison Barclay, who is the chief executive of the local Boys & Girls Club.